Sefton Council approve Council Tax increase at budget meeting

Rise is set to cost band D households 48p a week

Bootle Town Hall where Sefton's councillors agreed to the council tax and car parking charges increase

Last night Sefton Council set about plugging a £3m gap in this years budget accounts by increasing Council Tax and raising the cost of car parking.

At Bootle town hall, the borough’s councillors agreed to increase car parking charges for the first time since 2011 – aiming to raise an extra £100,000 in revenue.

The decision to introduce new payment machines and give drivers the ability to top up by mobile phone was also given the rubber stamp.

Despite opposition, council tax was unfrozen and increased by 1.99% – equating to around 48p a week for a Band D property and will generate an extra £1.9m.

Per Band D household this adds up to £1,291.89 for Sefton services and £1,518.59 when including Police and Fire.

If the increase in Council Tax had risen above 2%, this would have triggered a referendum – allowing Sefton’s residents to have their say.

Lib Dem leader, Iain Brodie Browne said: “We should not be afraid to put the choice about a Council Tax increase on the doorstep of the electorate.”

Conservative Independent member, Sir Ron Watson, added: “Why is it 1.99%? Because the leader is frightened to go above that and ask the people of Sefton.”

In his response Labour council leader, Peter Dowd, said the amount raised in the increase is the equivalent to four weeks of cuts that the government have made to the council.

He added: “We are being cut by £500,000 by this government week in week out – the reality is the amount raised by the increase will carry us forward for a month or so.”

He added that the 48p increase equates to, among many things, 165,000 home care hours, 5,000 older persons rest home hours a week and 50 independent fostering placements.

Cllr Dowd said that small rise in Council Tax could help save some of the vital services and make all the difference to some of the most vulnerable people.

He added: “We need to make the best choices that we can, but it is a choice between getting a bullet in the side of the head or the front of the head.

“In the difficult economic circumstances we have tried to produce a budget as responsibly as we possibly can.”

Conservative leader Terry Jones added: “We are in very difficult times and hard, drastic measures have had to be taken – there is no easy way out.

“Sometimes I think the cuts have not gone deep enough in certain areas. There are too many hard working people who are struggling because they are getting taxed.

“We should be there to help and protect everyone, not just a few – we need to help tax payers as well as others.”

Cllr Brodie Browne also said that there “was no magic way out of the crisis.”

Last night three amendments on the budget proposal were put forward by the Lib Dems – they asked for a reduction in members allowances and to support community libraries with revenue funding.

They also called for smaller area committees to be reinstated, instead of Central Sefton Area Committee, and to reduce the PR budget within the communications service.

All three amendments were lost.

The council is currently half way through a two-year budget, set in 2013 – with targeted savings of £50m.

Cuts have so far included the closure of a number of libraries, including Aintree and Carnegie – while burial and cremation fees have become the most expensive in Britain.

Figures produced by the council’s finance department suggest that Sefton’s reduction in funding from the government between 2011/2012 and 2015/2016 will equate to £69.8m – compared with £24.3m for Dorset.

This years reduction in government funding totals £14.4m compared to last year. Within the next budget phase, 2015/2017, Sefton are looking to cut a further £56m.

The Editor

Andrew Brown

Andrew Brown is the editor of the Southport Visiter, Midweek Visiter, Formby Times, Ormskirk Advertiser, Skelmersdale Advertiser, and the Crosby Herald. Andrew was born and bred in Southport - a true Sandgrounder. Andrew was one of the founders of Southport's Charity Fun Fest.